To think that caffeine & sugar are drugs?

[dieselKiller]

The mood altering effects of caffeine & sugar are pretty obvious, I think, and both positive (more energy) & negative (anxiety, aggression). AIBU to think that we should be more explicit as a society that caffeine and sugar are mood-altering drugs?

Do you talk to your kids about the effects of caffeine and sugar so they’re not caught unawares by them?

So your position is that caffeine is a mood-altering drug and this is a neutral statement that is so obvious and non-controversial that I shouldn’t have mentioned it, but to say similar about sugar is demonising sugar and calling it evil? Seems like an odd set of beliefs, but OK.

Not half as odd as your own argument, OP.

You just sound confused to be honest so I'm going to bow out!

Of course caffeine is a drug, probably the most popular drug ever used. It’s a psychoactive substance. That’s why we consume it.

Sugar isn’t a drug, it’s just a simple carbohydrate.

Can't say I've ever seen anyone binging on white sugar! Corn syrup combined with fat and flavouring - now you're talking!

White Sugar sandwiches (on white break) were a thing in the 1970s. I used to quite like them. Frank McCourt talks about them as a common snack he was given in rural 1930s Ireland.

And then there was Kelloggs Frosties cereal... with sugar sprinked on top if you liked.

I used to eat those things plenty & yet it wasn't difficult to stop. Maybe I lack an addictive gene.

I have tried and tried and tried to give up sugar. I can for weeks on end then of if I have a bite of something the kids have baked I then totally fall off the wagon and feel like an addict who then has to eat ALL the sugar. I then find it very hard to resist in fact I become obsessed by thoughts of sugar.

This reminds me of me so much of ceasing smoking 30 years ago.

I believe sugar is a very powerful drug.

It gives me migraines and all carbs including sugar make me bloated and I would love to never eat them again.

I would say that both caffeine and sugar are addictive to a point, but only caffeine could be considered close-ish to being considered a drug (I personally dont think that it is, but tell that to the massive withdrawal headaches I get if I dont have any)

Personally, of all the things to talk to kids about, they would be low on my list.

Caffeine and sugar are not the problem.

It’s people’s relationship to caffeine and sugar that can be the problem.

The problem is based on body chemistry / dopamine.

People can get addicted to almost anything, gambling, video games, food in general, sex, even exercise etc.

Many people who do get addicted to things often simply switch their addiction when they wean themselves off one thing.

Alcohol......enough said